beautiful, funny, sad & true

This is a really busy week. . .not that I haven’t had plenty to talk about, just haven’t had time to tell about it. Saturday I went and had an awesome breakfast with my friend, and then went to KBOO to record an episode of JBJ’s radio show, which will be aired next week.

Tuesday night I made a nice, improvised dinner for my friend of tofu, bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and basil leaves, in a blackberry teriyaki sauce, stir-fried and served with rice. It didn’t come out like I expected, but it was really good nonetheless. Then I went downtown to see a show that featured many of my actor friends. It was very entertaining, and quite the combination of elements. I took lots of pictures; when I have more time I’ll post a few. After the show, a handful of us went around the corner to Ground Kontrol, where we played Rock Band for the first time. I played drums. It was really fun, but a bit weird, too, if you already know how to play the instrument in question. A few guys came up after our song and said, “You’re a real drummer, aren’t you? I could tell. You were using the pedal and everything!” Hilarious.

Last night my friend and I went to sushi and then went looking for a raincoat for her, and then the rest of the time I spent cleaning up after the cooking extraganza the night before. I also watched the movie DIG! after that, which is excellent. I’m definitely planning to watch it again before I return it.

Tonight after work, I’m driving down to Salem for a cello recording session, doing the session (as long as it takes) and then driving home. Tomorrow after work, I’m driving to Yakima for the weekend, to play a gig, and to see a couple of friends. Again, I’ll write more about all of this when I have some more time, and after I have some pictures to show for it.

Why ‘ouroboros’? Because I’ve been so busy lately that the feeling of chasing my own tail isn’t quite enough. . .by the time this weekend is over, I will have caught up with myself, and I may actually find myself able to eat my own tail.

Ew.

Anyway.

Carl Jung is rolling over in his grave right now.

OneYearAgo

One of my musician friends hates the phrase ‘mixed bag’, but I’m going to go ahead and use it (albeit with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek), because that’s what this week has been. After a debilitatingly sad couple of weeks, I’m finally feeling able to go and do all the things I normally do. Wednesday night was the play-reading group, and I feel like that’s what brought me back to life. The play we read was the story of a quirky pianist (so naturally I played piano) who had lots of children, and the story was set in an Irish Catholic neighborhood of Chicago, around the time of Prohibition. Very well-written and humorous, and I got the honor of reading the lead role. After that, two of the guys from the group and I went out and talked, and shared a basket of French fries, and caught up on each others’ lives. It was nice, and genuine, and I appreciated it.

Thursday I raced over to my favorite new sushi place to meet Genie-Wa. She’s here visiting her mom and interviewing for jobs so that she can move back here again, which I for one am very glad about. Her rental car was a white convertible, and after some trial and error, we finally figured out how to put the top down. Perfect timing, too, because the seemingly interminable months of shitty, depressing weather are finally starting to break here in Portland, so I’m sure she’ll have plenty of opportunities to race around and enjoy it.

As we were heading our separate ways, my hospitalized friend called. Since she doesn’t have a phone in her room, she has to walk clear across the building into a public area, and sometimes there are people milling around, and other times the place is empty. Sometimes people are using the phone, so she has to walk clear back to her room and try again later. She spends most of her days sleeping. Weekends are particularly long, because the doctors aren’t on duty, so I’m going to go visit her this morning, actually, before my afternoon cello gig and evening accordion gig. These will be the first shows I’ve played in over two weeks. I had to back out of four different gigs since this happened, but now I feel ready to play again.

Last night I went to Slabtown to see three bands; Lasers All The Time, Shim, and Hockey. All amazing. I already had Hockey’s CD because the drummer works with me. I first listened to their CD in my car, and I was so impressed with it that it stayed in constant rotation (as they say in radio jargon) for two weeks.

I was supposed to meet my dad for breakfast at 9:00 this morning. Around 8:00 I heard a strange tapping on my door. It wasn’t a knock, but it sounded like someone was tapping my door with something wooden, or maybe metal. Freaked me out, because strange knocks that early in the morning, particularly in my hidden apartment, are almost never because of good news. So I nervously opened the door, to find my dad on my doorstep. “Would you believe. . .I’m early?” he asked. Sheesh. Naturally, my place is a complete disaster area, because I haven’t been home for the last three nights, and I just rearranged my furniture and everything, so I felt nervous about the early-morning knocks, and also about the disarray of my place.

The visit went okay, though. He asked about my friend, and asked a bit about what our relationship was like, and how she was doing, and seemed (somewhat uncharacteristically) empathetic and understanding. But again, he was nice, and genuine, so I certainly appreciated that.

I’ve noticed quite a few blog visits from two different places recently; one of which is in the Portland area, and the other is in the Bay Area. I have a pretty good idea of the places that the regular readers are from, and of those of my friends who read this blog, but these are both new ones. If you’re one of the long-term readers of BFST, you’ll understand why I raise an eyebrow at sudden bursts of energy like that. That’s all I’ll say about it.

Took my cello in for a quick and easy repair the other day. It has a ‘wolf’ tone, which is a common affliction for cellos. It’s hard to explain, but certain notes make the body vibrate excessively, and the horrible, warbling tone it produces when that happens is called a wolf. I don’t know why it’s called that, but I’m just glad that it’s minimized now. They never completely go away, apparently. The repair guy said that the cello instructor at the main university here in town has a cello that’s worth nine hundred thousand dollars, but it has that wolf tone, which was minimized by sticking a piece of a wine cork down between the body and the tailpiece. So funny, and now I have one there too.

And now it’s time to drive out to the hospital.

OneYearAgo

Tonight was the best play-reading group night ever.

The play we read tonight was the one about Leon Theremin, written by one of the members of the group, and I got to play a real theremin. The music and sound effects were very much scripted into this play, in a way that they have not been in the other plays we’ve read. Not in the notation sense, but there were cues like, “Tuning” or “Ether”, or the actors will say, “What’s that sound?” or “Dance, and your body will control the instrument,” and that was my cue to make an appropriate sound happen. Total blast.  I also got the opportunity to read the part of a Soviet bureaucrat, which I’ve said a million times is fun to do.

Saussha came to the reading with me, and she expected to just sit and watch the proceedings, but instead she got asked to read the part of Theremin’s (second?) wife Lavinia, a Jamaican socialite and professional dancer who lived in Russia and New York. Talk about a challenge!  But she pulled it off adeptly, like the total professional that she is.

A good time was had by all.  I know I’ve already mentioned how much I love this group. . .but tonight was the most fun I’ve had yet.

Tossed In, an avid and extremely prolific blogger in his own right, and I were talking the other day about the bad reputation that blogs have. Most people don’t consider them legitimate forms of writing, even though more and more blogs every day are cited as sources for (start reading in stentorian tones. . .now) ‘serious’ news and reporting.

We wondered what it will take to get blogging taken more seriously. We didn’t really come up with an answer – other than to keep writing as well and as interestingly as we can, of course – but we both agreed that there’s more than enough material out there cluttering up the internet that gives bloggers in general a bad name. I’m sure this blog would NEVER fall into the ‘clutter’ category. Noooo way. Not even remotely possible.

I don’t have any delusions. I write to help myself remember things, and to have fun, and to share things that, with any luck, other people will enjoy as well. So far, most have. Some have not; c’est la vie. The precious few dissenters over the years have been blow-darted, or crushed by boulders, or bisected by light-rail commuter trains. In a few cases, pianos have mysteriously fallen on them from a great height. If you ask me to my face, I will vehemently deny all knowledge of these things.

But that, as they say, is neither here nor there; back to Tossed In. He called at eight o’ clock on Thursday morning to invite me to see a play that night. I had a gig with Susie, but luckily it was a super-early one, so I was able to go, and I’m very glad that I was. The play was A Long Christmas Ride Home, and it was strange, and surprising, and excellent. We may go see it a second time, which would actually be his third time. Afterwards, we went to the Blue Monk, the jazz club up the street from the theater, to say hello to some of the actors (he pretty much knows all of them, I know only a few) and to get some of the Blue Monk’s excellent food.

In other news, I’m borrowing a theremin for the next few days. This makes me very, very happy. One of my friends in the play-reading group wrote a semi-biographical play about the instrument’s inventor, and the group will be reading it this week. Since I’m the music guy in the group, I kept wondering what instrument I could bring that would sound even close to that. I was going to bring the cello, because it could be used in a similar way, but when Matt suggested I use his theremin, I jumped at the chance. Yay! I just know that I’m going to end up wanting (and buying) one of my own after this.

And while we’re on the subject, can I just take a minute to say how much I appreciate the play-reading group? Cause I do. They’re such tremendous people, who are interesting and professional and. . .alive, in a way that is very refreshing. It’s always nice to be around people who really ‘get it.’ They’re such a source of entertainment, friendship, and camaraderie that I make it a priority to be there, no matter how busy the rest of my life gets.

I’m thinking of rearranging the furniture in my apartment, but I don’t quite feel up to that task just yet. I don’t have a Plan for it, but I have a feeling I’m just going to end up doing it one weekend in the near future. It’s been about nine months or so since the last rearrangement, which was really more of a replacement than a rearrangement, because I got rid of some bookshelves and a computer desk that I’ve had for ages, and replaced them, but the new stuff is pretty much in the same spot that the old stuff was in, and it’s getting to be about time to shake things up again.

Wow, that was a really long sentence.

Oh yeah. . .and you can stop reading in stentorian tones now. Thank you.

OneYearAgo

The night of plays. . .was awesome. Definitely one of the most fun and interesting things I’ve ever been a part of. No pics of the actual play yet, but here’s one of the cast-and-crew ‘after’ party.

The night was so much fun that words actually fail me. I made a new Seattle friend at that party. We’re there in the back left corner (I’m the short one dressed all in black), and I think you can tell by our posture that we’d rather be talking to each other than to the person we were talking with right then.

I washed my car for the first time in ages on Saturday, then today it rained AND I parked under a tree, so it’s already covered with crap again. But even that looks much better than it did before. Hopefully the rainstorms will come again tonight and wash it again for me.

I have a couple more days of down time to enjoy, and a play reading night, and then I’m busy with mixing and gigs and helping friends move and more gigs, and a trip to Yakima for a wedding, and all kinds of other stuff, every day and night for the next two weeks.

I need to learn how to end my blog entries. I’ve learned how to name them, now I just need to learn how to end them, and tie everything together in a nice way. I feel like some of them have been abrupt or left you hanging.

Not this one, though. This one has a neat, tidy little ending, if I do say so myself.

OneYearAgo